UP and breakfasted at a decent time – Martyn’s coming up this morning to go for a walk and catch up.
We have a good walk and blether – nice to see him – then he heads off and I get busy with some video editing.
I also finish off the replacement stoppers/numbers for our toilet seat. The soft TPU filament for the 3D printer has worked 🙂
We have visitors coming to stay tomorrow (Monday) and I’m doing pork belly in the smoker. The two slabs I took out the freezer yesterday have defrosted so I trim and score them, add a rub and put tem in the fridge ready to go on in the morning.
After a little more video editing in the studio I go back to the house for dinner and we watch our pal Billy’s livestream from Florida.
NOT sure why, but I decide to try and rejig the studio desk space so I can sit properly and get my knees under the desk.
I mess with a few options and get sorted then go back to the house and start to prototype replacement ‘bumpers’ for the toilet seat. The existing rubber ones have started to perish and look a bit shabby…and are a bit of a magnet for dirt etc. Margaret had looked online and couldn’t find replacements so I ordered some soft TPU filament for the 3D printer to try and make replacements myself.
The soft TPU filament is rubber-like and notoriously difficult to print with. My first design doesn’t come out great so I make some changes both to my design and the printer settings and get it sorted 🙂
In the studio I finish sorting out the video footage from Finland and Estonia then finish of some bit for my pal Kevin.
WE ENJOY watching the squirrels while we have breakfast then one of my young guitar students arrives.
It’s a nice day and the wind is light so I head out onto the loch for a paddle and go to Port Bawn at the far end of Inchcallioch. It’s quite aside from a couple of lassies who’ve also paddled from the village. I get some video with the Hoverair Aqua and make way back to dry land.
After a late lunch in the garden I have a shower then Matty rolls up. He’s staying over tonight.
In the studio I gather some bits of video footage from the FInland and Estonia trip ready for editing over the weekend.
AFTER breakfast I check the rotary drier ground spike/mount I concreted in yesterday. It’s good. I take some measurements and start designing a cover to 3D print.
The first version isn’t quite right so I make some improvements to the design and print up another. Success.
I don’t want to venture far as I’m waiting on the doc calling to discuss the mystery vomitting etc and I want Margaret to be on the call too…she always has lots of questions!
There’s a load of onions that need transplanted from seed trays so I get that done then remove the chilli and micro tomato plants from the hydroponic system and plant them out. They’re well established but the hydroponic unit needs a good clean out and I need to get the tomatillos going.I clean the unit out, remove the pump and fit an air stone but realise I don’t have the right baskets and sponges.
I order more then look out the old, smaller hydroponic kit and plant the tomatillo seeds.
In the studio I do some video work for my pal Kevin then play guitar for a while before going back to the house and marinading the duck and ginger for our brouchette de canard for grilling later.
UP IN time to get some work done before a 9am online guitar lesson. Feels like I’m getting back into my ‘normal’ routine!
Then it’s straight onto a local hydro society board meeting which takes me up to lunchtime.
I have some personalized trekking flasks to finish off and an order for a custom magnetic leather bookmarks to make up. There’s also some euros to be sent off to the foreign exchange place and some set lists to be submitted to the overseas collection societies before a coupla venues will accept invoices for my shows.
It’s a nice day so I take the opportunity to get some weed killer down but run out before I get to the front of the house. Refill ordered.
Next job it to dig out the ground spike/base for our rotary drier. It’s been in for about ten years, but the guy that put it in didn;t dig deep enough and it stood a good six inched above the gravel meaning folks were constantly tripping over it. Also, more recently, the grandkids have taken to filling it with stones and other shit, so the drier doesn’t go into the bae far enough and is a bit wobbly.
Of course anything involving digging around here is a nightmare as the topsoil is only a few inches before you hit rock, boulders and stuff. Plus the ground spike has been concreted in a huge lump.
Takes me a good coupla hours with a heavy ground breaking bar and hole digger – always annoys me that I need to make a 18-inch diameter hole for four-inch ground spike/base/post etc. Anyway, I get a suitable hole dug, empty out the socket of stones and stuff and postcrete it in. I’ll design and 3D print a cap to keep stones etc out, especially now it’s flush with the gravel.
In the studio I record some more idents for my upcoming show on Rock.Scot radio and upload some tracks to my library.
AFTER a nice long lie we have some breakfast then I start clearing out some of the archived posts and images on website. A job that’s become long overdue.
I get the bus into the village where I’m given a clean bill of health form the dentist and hygienist then walk the four miles home.
There’s some merch orders to be packed up and an order of five custom flasks to be made up for a group of Australian walks doing the West Highland Way next week.
Betty’s invited us for dinner and we have a lovely evening.
WE’RE up early to get out the hotel and return the rental car to Hertz at the airport…then on to check in for the first leg of our journey home. Tallinn to Helsinki.
Once through security we have some breakfast then at the gate I have a shot in a massage chair then a complimentary ice cream before we board.
There’s time for lunch in Helsinki airport and then on to the flight to Edinburgh where we land just after 5pm. Bus to the car parking place then a stop at the supermarket for some supplies en route home. Phew!
Great to catch up with our pals Martin, Andres, Siret and Marilyn in Tartu fo other merch too
WE’RE not as sore and tired as I expected after our night on the floor in the junk room – but we need to get on the road ASAP.
After saying cheerio we head for Tartu arriving late morning and stopping on the edge of town for a sleep…then McDonalds.
We arrive at Salong at 5pm for load in and Andres arrives a the same time. Booker/owner Ants has us set up in no time and I get a chance to chill and chat with Andres before more pals Martin and Marilyn arrive.
There’s a really crowd in. I’m very pleasantly surprised as this show as a late booking. I have a grand time playing and we sell out of vinyl and shift a fair bit of other merch too. That’s gonna make life easier for packing for the plane!
Margaret’s driving us to Tallinn right after the show and we give our pal Martin a lift – he’s off to the USA and flies out a few hours before us.
It’s late when we check into the airport hotel but Margaret is keen we sort all the packing out so there’s no rush in the morning….
AFTER a decent breakfast at the hotel I sit out on our room’s balcony and get some work done before we hit the road.
Not too long ago drive to Torva and we’ve not arranged to be at our ‘accommodation’ ‘til 3pm. We have lunch at a nice wee coffee shop in the centre of town then find the place we’re staying.
The guy there seems nice enough. There’s a load of folks sitting round the kitchen table drinking beer and we’re shown upstairs to our room. Uh-oh – it’s the ‘junk room’ with a skinny mattress on the floor covered in a random selection of kids’ blankets and stuff. Fuck. Too late to say “sorry, we’re gonna drive somewhere and find a hotel”.
We sit with our ‘host’ and various pals/family members. Seems they’re all involved with Pubi Juudas in some way….but none of them are coming to the show. It’s all a little weird.
The venue is great..and it’s a nice surprise that our pal Al is in Cry Baby – the other act on the bill. Venue owner Elton and sound guy Kevin are cool too and there’s a lovely spread of food and stuff backstage.
It’s a fairly quiet gig audience-wise but there’s a decent enough bunch of folks who’ve travelled to see me and we do well on merch.
We’re back at our accommodation just before 2am and luckily everyone seems to have gone to bed. Unsure if the blankets and stuff on the floor are clean we sleep in our clothes, hoodies pulled up and off to sleep….
WE’RE PACKED up and out the apartment soon after 11am and go to get a taxi to the airport to collect our rental car.
Getting an Uber in the largely pedestrianised old town turns out to be tricky and we have to wander around trailing our bags and stuff to find somewhere we can get a pickup.
Eventually we get sorted and pick up a car from Hertz at the airport. Margaret’s not happy with the first one they give us so goes back for an upgrade and a more suitable vehicle.
There’s a couple of hours to drive to Voru and we stop en route for coffee and cake.
Show promoter Lauri meets us at the very swanky hotel where he’s booked us the best suite. We sort our stuff then load in at the venue.
After soundcheck we’re sent to what turns out to be the best restaurant in town for a great meal then we go back to a packed, sold out venue and get ready for the show.
I have a grand time playing two 45-minute or so sets, the crowd is awesome and we have a great evening 🙂
